5 things to implement following Learning Technologies 2023

Learning Technologies is done and dusted until next year and you’ve found yourself back at your desk thinking; “Where do I start?!”

With so many vendors to speak to and so many sessions to take in, it can be overwhelming to separate the noise from the knowledge and the fluff from the facts.?

That’s why we’ve done the job for you.?

We’ve stripped out the best bits from Learning Technologies 2023 and rounded up the 5 things we believe are worth implementing when you get back to your desk after a hectic two days. Enjoy!

1. Put the focus on the end-user?

This is nothing new.?

We know learners are more and more seeking personalised experiences and one size fits all is no longer acceptable. But more vendors seem to be focussed on this and catering to different types of learning and accessibility, as they finally start to pivot from administrator first to it’s all about the end-user.?

So, what’s the takeaway here? Involve your end-users consistently across all program roll-outs to ensure their needs are met.?

In Helen’s recent edition of Juice , she highlights how more traditional Learning Management Systems like Workday, Docebo, or Cornerstone OnDemand have always focussed on the administration side of learning rather than their people’s experiences which is what leads to true learning.?

Of course, there’s still a need for the ability to create compliance reports, assign mandatory training and release SCORM-based content. But the overall focus in today’s world is much more geared towards an experience which encourages engagement, buy-in and supports a learning culture and healthy learning habits in a much more direct way.

2. Experiment more??

Did you know a culture of experimentation can help L&D teams to drive smarter and faster change??

In one of Learning Technologies session’s, ‘Measuring how learning culture drives business impact,’ hosted by Helen Marshall and Ann Summers’ Becky West, they discussed the importance of a test, analyse and refine approach to L&D, quoting;?

“Developing a successful learning culture is the result of many small experiments across an organisation.”

Ann Summers brought this to life through an experimentation of their own where they observed the stores with the highest learning engagement on THRIVE also had the highest sales performance. So, they put together a hypothesis:

If learning culture, platform engagement and interaction on their THRIVE platform is high, you are more engaged at work and therefore more likely to provide a better service and experience to our customers.

Now, they’re proving it through these six takeaways they shared with delegates on the day:?

1. Check data & resource availability - Recognise what you have access to and pull it out.
2. Leverage the experts - L&D aren’t the SMEs, we are not the gatekeeper so leverage your SMEs/experts, front-line teams and customers.?
3. Build strong relationships - Getting people on board with change is tricky. Build relationships with key stakeholders and senior leaders and understand how to make an impact.
4. Utilise time effectively - It’s so precious! Make it relevant and accessible, don’t waste time.
5. Everything needs a measure - Start somewhere, understand the key metrics that matter and continue the journey.
6. Identify what is lead or lag - Define what the big priorities are and what else you can measure as a result.?

From this, Ann Summers isn’t expecting just a correlation of activity but is actually proving causation that engagement and the learning culture they’ve built directly impacts performance and output.

And what we loved about this is the “what if…?” attitude, which is often missing in L&D.

What if we gave this a go? What if that is affecting change over here? What if we tried it this way instead? If we all start thinking like data scientists, the variables in our learning programmes soon become evident.

So, our takeaway is asking how we as L&D teams can we get more comfortable with experimenting, and what skills do we need to hone in on to do so?

Modern L&D teams have curiosity, a data mindset, and democratic experimentation.

3. Understand your skills landscape?

Now more than ever, identifying and managing the skills within your organisation is crucial. If Learning Technologies taught us anything it’s that it’s time to get the right tools in place to be able to identify your skills gaps, understand your skills landscape and spot what skills or interests are emerging within your talent marketplace.

This is still a fairly new concept as it relies on a bottom-up approach. It counts on your people telling your organisation what they’re skilled in, where they need to progress, what they might be interested in outside of their function, role and seniority and not the other way around.?

At Learning Technologies, I’d say roughly 20% of all ‘on the floor’ seminars on the day had AI in the title, and at least one session from the conference was focused on AI each day.

So, a lot of delegates were walking away thinking “How do I leverage this in my everyday life?”?

Well, imagine you have the right technology in place to tell you actually who in your organisation, for example, Tom in Marketing is skilled in harnessing AI to create content. Tom might have been skilled in using software such as copy.ai to generate blogs years before people even heard the word Chat GPT. But how are you to know without that visibility??

To keep up with the evolving talent market and emerging technologies, you need to have the tools or processes in place to identify what you’re working with and harness what you have.?

4. L&D trends to watch ??

Adaptive learning, coaching, and personalisation were hot topics at Learning Technologies, despite falling in popularity among L&D teams, according to Donald H Taylor's Global Sentiment Survey.?

AI definitely had the greatest impact on the learner experience in these core areas and it was clear how more vendors are using AI to not only support content creation but solve the problem of personalisation and content shock or overload.?

Something to watch out for is identifying who’s jumping on the bandwagon by using 'AI' in the title of their talk or ‘AI-powered’ language to draw a crowd and who’s actually considering the practical advantages of how we use AI to solve real-world problems.

5. Make compliance more than a tick-box exercise?

Speaking of crowd-drawing seminars, we took a risk at Learning Technologies this year and brought it back to basics highlighting ‘compliance shouldn’t be a dirty word’ in a session hosted by Chief Learning Officer, Helen that turned out to be jam-packed. Who knew compliance was that sexy?!

In this popular seminar, Helen challenged the audience by asking “Have you ever actually changed your behaviour as a result of compliance training?”

With only a few hands up, it prompted everyone to think about compliance as more than just completions, why don’t we have the same standards and goals for behaviour change as other programmes? This is the serious stuff, why can’t it be something more engaging and meaningful? Helen shared the importance of driving real outcomes with this quote:?

“To get a seat at the table you may be comfortable presenting completions. But to keep your seat at the table we need to be moving the needle on the bottom line.”

That’s why the team at THRIVE have worked endlessly to reimagine the purpose of compliance training. Recently launching Compliance Club, to support L&D teams with fully accredited, sector-specific and actually thought-provoking content that will truly change attitudes and behaviours and not just tick a box.???

To give delegates a taste of what’s to come, THRIVE gave away free courses that attendees could take home and upload directly to their LMS.?

The free stuff didn’t end there.?

We can’t write a Learning Technologies takeaways article and not find some space to reminisce over all the fun that happened on stand H20. From sushi to sweets and mimosas and bowling, we had it all.?

Here are some snaps to round this article up!